Feilding win title after comeback

Feilding Tennis Club will be still be in a state of euphoria after coming back from a 4-1 deficit and match points against to claim an improbable victory 5-4 against an equally matched Manawatu Lawn Tennis Club team.

The premier interclub final was on Wednesday night and because of the wet weather, the final was held inside at the 24 Indoor Tennis Centre.

Unlike last season’s final, it was the older and more experienced MLTC side that came out firing and built an early lead.

The lead was on the back of the women’s singles and doubles where Bridget Dickins and Samantha Rowe continued their unbeaten run in both singles and doubles together with twoset wins over Ella Wells and Ella Marshall, 6-2, 6-4 and 6-2, 6-1 respectively.

Dickins and Rowe had earlier combined to win their doubles 6-3, 6-2 over Wells and Marshall.

With a 3-0 lead, the score was expected to be almost levelled with the following men’s doubles, with Feilding having much stronger pairings.

The bottom men’s doubles went Feilding’s way, with Caleb Young and Alex Evans beating Peter Thompson and Andy Martin in two sets, 6-4, 6-4.

The top men’s doubles, however, proved to be a much tighter match with the flow switching back and forward between the two sides.

Kieren Rooney and Kurt Amey took the first set 6-3, while Jono Spring and Liam Mcknight wrestled the match back to level terms to take the second 6-3.

In the super tie break Spring and Mcknight built a quick 5-1 lead, only to let it slip to be match point down 9-8.

However it was Spring and Mcknight who seized control of the last three points to win 11-9.

This put MLTC up 4-1, needing only to win one more match to claim the title.

The No 1 and No 4 men’s singles were next and both were three-set thrillers.

Just when spectators thought that the evening couldn’t become any more nerve wracking, they were in for a treat as the two young Feilding players became heroes.

In the top singles Rooney once again played Spring, as the two repeated their finals match from the year before.

Rooney once again prevailed, but not without being stretched to a third set, where his consistently told with a 6-3, 4-6, 10-2 win.

In the battle of the No 4s Liam Mcknight stunned Connor Backhouse to lead 6-3 and 4-0, before Backhouse staged a remarkable comeback.

Backhouse fought back to level the score in the second set, but still found himself down two match points at 5-4.

Mcknight, who had played an excellent match, may have been tripped up, but the magnitude of the occasion and after losing the opportunity to finish the match, Backhouse played himself into winning contention, eventually winning the match 10-7 in a third-set tie break and saving his team from losing the title. The scores were now 4-3 in favour of MLTC, but the with the No 2 and No 3 men’s singles heavily favoured by Feilding, it was always going to be tough for the MLTC to win from this stage.

MLTC Thompson and Martin fought valiantly, but as predicted, both Amey and Young sealed an overall victory for Feilding with their 6-3, 6-4 and 6-2, 6-4 wins.